29-year-old former soldier charged with murder

An Ottawa man remains in police custody following a court appearance Thursday to answer to first-degree murder charges in the death of Fouad Nayel.

Adam Picard, 29, was arrested on Wednesday following a joint investigation by the Ottawa Police Service and the OPP.

Fouad Nayel, 28, of Ottawa was reported missing by his family in June. His vehicle was later recovered by the Ottawa Police.

In November, Renfrew OPP responded to a call that human remains had been found in a wooded area in greater Madawaska Township. Those remains were later identified as Nayel.

Before the court case Nicole Nayel, the victim’s mother, said Picard called her son’s cellphone 5 times in a row the day he disappeared. She said she talked to Picard on the phone. He told her they were to meet that day in Bells Corners to go zip-lining. Though her son told her he was going to Petawawa. She met with Picard a couple times at a Tim Horton’s Coffee shop to get more information from him and she says she felt suspicious of him.

She says her son was a very trusting person. The killer "...did this not only to my son but our whole family".

“I buried my son,” Nayel says, “It was the hardest thing any mother could go through. It was horrible.”

Picard’s lawyer Sean May says of his client, “He's in shock, He doesn't have any information yet what the evidence is about so we're waiting for that and we expect next week we'll have a better idea what we're dealing with.”

Picard at one time served with the military in Afghanistan.

Anyone with information on the case is asked to call Ottawa Police at 613-236-1222, or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477.